From 19th Century to Cold War:
A Century of Atomic Bombs and Apocalypse
Apocalypse, or Armageddon, was first considered as some religious prophesy, but only after people’s recognition on atomic bombs did, as Aldiss (1985, cited in Brians, 2016) stated, “the prophecies gain plausibility, although now they were couched in lay terms rather than religious ones.” The first novel portraying an atomic weapon is believed to be Robert Cromie’s The Crack of Doom, in 1895 (Seed, 2013), coincidently half a century before the tragic of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then, atomic bombs and following apocalypse had been frequently seen in science fictions, or even mainstream fictions. Atomic culture and apocalyptic fictions are like twins, influencing each other recursively. This essay analyses one side, that how does real-life atomic culture influence the development apocalyptic fictions since 19th century, when the first spark of atomic culture appeared.
Atomic culture has evolved significantly over time. To better understand its progression, I will divide the timeline into three distinct periods. The first period, before WWII, was marked by speculative imagination about atomic weapons, as their potential remained theoretical until the actual R&D progress took place in WWII. The second period, lasting from WWII to the early 1950s, though short, was transformative. During this time, public attitudes and perceptions of atomic bombs underwent a dramatic shift, influenced by the realities of nuclear warfare and its consequences. The third period is the Cold War and beyond, altering atomic culture into a postmodernist era, in which authors started to critically examine traditional values and family dynamics from atomic narratives.
I. Before Hiroshima: a bright future
Since 19th century, with people having a preliminary understanding on nuclear technologies, what Weart (2012) called “radioactive hope” started to rise. While people had recognized the power of radioactive weapons. In a novel written in 1906, The Lord of Labour, the Germans invented a ray that can demagnetize materials, which could be used against British fleets. And oppositely, in Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s article Itself, he described the ability of radioactive technology to cure patients. (Brians, 2016). People had enthusiasm and faith in new technologies, that “would lead humanity to an abundance not only of material goods but of brotherhood and wisdom.” (Weart, 2012, p. 4)
In this case, though started to realize the danger of nuclear technologies and the potential apocalypse it could bring to the humanity, people always believed that everything would turn out fine at the end of the story. The most significant symbol of such optimism is H. G. Wells’ novel The World Set Free in 1913, in which he described a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by atomic bombs. He imagined the image after the bombing in a bird’s-eye view: “In the map of nearly every country of the world three or four or more red circles, a score of miles in diameter, mark the position of the dying bombs and the death areas that men have been forced to abandon around them.” (p. 222), which was quite identical to what happened in Hiroshima, that, according to the record, the diameter of fatal area was around 2.2 miles, in which no human beings could survive (Glasstone, 1977).
Such description shows Wells’ well knowledge in nuclear bombs, and his awareness of the danger of the bomb. However, he was still optimistic about it: After the world was destroyed, the survivals gathered and established a world government by ethical technocrats, who were determined to build a neutral, brilliant, and new society, and most importantly, by using the technology that once destroyed the world – nuclear technology. He stated, “and now it was that the social possibilities of the atomic energy began to appear.” (p. 232) Only under the confident atomic culture can authors like Wells write such paeans to the atomic technology. As one of the most influential SF authors at the time, his optimism could reflect the public idea on atomic technologies: dangerous, but can be helpful. (Weart, Brians, Seed).
II. Little Boy: realities behind “The Bomb”
The optimistic atomic culture remained until WWII, when leaks from the military about atomic weapons turned out to be horrible, for which reason optimism was gradually replaced by pessimism, and the imagined consequences of atomic bombs were multiplied to a degree that humanity could not afford.
August 6th, 1945 was a day that changed everything. The first atomic bomb in real war, Little Boy, was deployed in Hiroshima. Only three days later, another bomb stroke Nagasaki. The news soon spread across the world, causing huge responses globally, especially in United States. The atomic bomb was somehow “dignified”, like Weart (2012, p. 56) described, “everyone spoke of the atomic bomb, or just The Bomb, capitalized like a mythical demigod”.
In discussing the portrayal of the “real disaster” or apocalypse after 1945, Dowling (1987) observes that the imagination is constrained by two factors: the incomprehensible scale of the horror and the historical experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He states that writing about these events demands fidelity to both the deceased and the living survivors, while simultaneously revealing the limitations of language and imagination. By this time, depictions of atomic bombs were no longer out of imaginations but deeply rooted in reality. Consequently, the literature of this era sought to authentically reflect on the devastation experienced in Japan.
Therefore, between 1945 and around 1952, non-fiction works on atomic bombings gained prominence, transforming the atomic culture profoundly, while the production of apocalyptic fiction declined significantly compared to WWII (Brians, 2016). Among the most influential non-fictional works is Hiroshima by John Hersey in 1946, a collection of reports focusing on six survivors—five Japanese and one German Jesuit. Hersey, a war correspondent embedded with the military in the Pacific, vividly captured the destruction of Hiroshima and its impact on civilian life, presenting it as a real-world apocalypse. For example, he illustrated the scene of Hiroshima in a plain but realistic way:
…the few standing, gutted buildings only accentuating the horizontality of everything else (the Museum of Science and Industry, with its dome stripped to its steel frame, as if for an autopsy … the row of dowdy banks, caricaturing a shaken economic system; and in the streets a macabre traffic—hundreds of crumpled bicycles, shells of streetcars and automobiles, all halted in mid-motion. (cited in Seed, 2013, p. 36)
This raw and harrowing revelation eclipsed the earlier, more optimistic atomic narratives, exemplifying what Seed (2013) describes as the “uncovering or revelation” of the bomb’s true legacy. Such legacy switched the atomic culture in Cold War and will change the themes of apocalyptic fictions entirely.
III. Cold War: rethinking values
The reality of atomic bombs leads people to rethink about the atomic bombs, especially in Cold War, when Communist powers acquired nuclear weapons, pushing the world to the edge of another nuclear war. During this period, the atomic culture turned from reflecting the reality faithfully to rethinking what the atomic bomb had, and would bring to humanity.
United States, as the first country developed atomic bombs and the perpetrator of Hiroshima tragedy, had the greatest strength of reflection. In 1950s, there were serval fiction movies went on screen, showing which Pressler (2003, p. 44) describes that “traditional American values of love and domesticity have also been sacrificed, the nuclear family disrupted.” The traditional family values were considered incompatible with nuclear warfare, leading to a reshape of traditional human values in response to nuclear warfare, and the apocalypse after the war.
On the Beach (the 1959 film), in this sense, was one of the best apocalyptic fictions emphasizing the theme. On the one hand, it deconstructed the traditional family values like parental love, when Peter Holmes and his wife decided to kill their own innocent baby in response to apocalyptic government’s call on suicide; on the other hand, the film is covered by unique powerlessness atmosphere in atomic apocalypse, leading to what Milner (2018, p. 79) states “simultaneous juxtaposition of the terrors of imminent extinction and the delights of hedonistic affluence”, which evident in the actions of the gentlemen who decided to exhaust their wine reserves, the doomed triumph of Grand Prix winner Julian Osborn, and the tragic, desperate romance between Moira Davidson and protagonist Dwight Lionel Towers (Brians, 2016). Through these elements, the viewers cannot help rethinking the deconstruction of traditional value under the shadow of atomic warfare, which is the theme of movie, the theme of the post-war atomic culture, and the theme of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fictions in the new era.
IV. Discussion
This essay has examined the change of atomic culture in three time periods – before WWII, from WWII to the dawn of Cold War, and the Cold War, each with a primary source showing how the culture is developed with time, and how such development leads to new themes of apocalyptic fictions.
Generally, the culture had gone through three stages – imagination of atoms, reflecting the reality of atoms, and rethinking the atoms. Each stage of the novel corresponds closely to the development of its corresponding culture, showing the literary diversity of different eras.
Biliography
Brians, P. (2016). ‘The History of Nuclear War in Fiction’, in Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction. [online] Available at: https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/11/16/nuclear-holocausts-atomic-war-in-fiction-3/ [Accessed 27 December 2024].
Dowling, D. (1987). Fictions of nuclear disaster. Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08228-5.
Glasstone, S. (1977). The Effects of Nuclear Weapons. United States Department of Defense and United States Department of Energy.
Milner, A. (2018). ‘On the Beach: Apocalyptic Hedonism and the Origins of Postmodernism’, in Burgmann, J. R. (ed.) Again, Dangerous Visions: Essays in Cultural Materialism. Leiden: Brill. pp. 78–92. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004314153_006.
Pressler, M. (2003). ‘Atomic Warfare and the Nuclear Family: Domestic Resistance in Hollywood Films About the A-Bomb’, Film criticism, 27(3), pp.40–52.
Seed, D. (2013). Under the Shadow: The Atomic Bomb and Cold War Narratives, The Kent State University Press, Ashland.
Weart, S. R. (2012). The rise of nuclear fear. Harvard: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674065062.
Wells, H. G. (1914). The World Set Free. New York: E. P. Dutton & company. [online] Available at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft91840q3q [Accessed 02 January 25].